hi jase, I just signed up to this forum and been following your build with interest, great work by the way. In regards to etch or epoxy you should coat it in epoxy with out a doubt. Epoxy is a much greater product once you apply it you are able to give it a block and it will show any highs or lows (dent) and it does have a very slight build to it so it will fill any very small dents. Once the epoxy is block you have the ability to wipe body filler over it and it sticking unlike etch, etch you have to sand back to bare metal as body filler will not take to etch. Doing it in etch just creates twice as much work and sanding it back to bare metal to do filler work just exposes the metal once again to moisture etc etc. With epoxy the metal is seal 100% of the time unless you rub though or grind a bit off the be able to weld and all so epoxy can get wet (within reason) unlike etch.

In addition to running non-standard brakes, I've also decided (out of personal preference) to get rid of the factory 'foot brake' and release mechanism.
Instead I'll be running a floor mounted handbrake.

Spent a couple of hours in the garage today ripping more old metal off the car.
Progress is slow, because I'm 'feeling my way' and learning as I go along ... but I'm having fun!

Decided to tackle the join between the quarter and the roof.

To get the factory lead out of the seam, I went to Bunnings and bought a cheap blow torch kit.

After putting on some safety goggles, filtered mask and some welding gloves I got stuck into it.
The lead melted out surprisingly easy and it wasn't long before I was able to get to the spot welds.

After hacking away this afternoon I've gotten rid of most of the panel.
On this side of the car, the outer wheelhouse was very rough (and I have a replacement already) so I simply cut the whole thing off.

Next step will be to cut the inner wheelhouse out and start the 'mini-tub' process ... followed by patching the boot floor.

Your chopping away a fair bit of metal there.
How are you maintaining the straightness / squareness of the body?

That'll be my next step.
Up to this point, it's been a fairly safe process to hack bits away whilst sitting on the rotisserie.

However ... as I go further (from what I've researched) I'll need to do the following;
1. Do one side at a time
2. Ensure that the weight of the car is distributed across the normal suspension points
3. Add some bracing (depending on which area is being worked on).

For (2) ... I'll be dropping the rear of the car off the rotisserie and sitting it back on the original leaf spring rear end. The front is bolted to the rotisserie by the chassis mount points, so should be fine.

For (3) ... when I do the mini-tubs I'll weld a brace between the boot floor and the parcel tray, since this process will require temporary removal of the factory bracing.